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Emily Hunt

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As ICOs become mainstream, entrepreneurs may wonder if they are a fit for their ventures.

ICO, which stand for initial coin offering, is a means of crowdfunding that is being increasingly used by startups as a replacement or supplement to raising venture capital. Already the amount raised by ICOs in 2017*, $180 million, exceeds the $101 million raised in all of 2016.

What is an ICO?

In an ICO, tokens are sold to the general public, which in turn, provides something similar to equity ownership for the token holder. The selling of these tokens is referred to as a “token sale” or “crowd sale.” Blockchain, the digital ledger behind bitcoin, enables the creation of tokens that have value in and of themselves.

Bitcoin and blockchain, the digital ledger used for bitcoin, have been headlining news. Bitcoin, once associated with illicit online transactions, is being recognized by big banks. Just this week State Street, one of the oldest banks in the US, made headlines as it set up its own innovation lab to deal with blockchain technology. JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, with more banks to come, backed R3, a blockchain consortium. To understand Bitcoin, blockchain and the crypto future we sat down with Tim Lee, founder of ArcBit bitcoin wallet, who has been dealing with the blockchain much earlier before the general public, or even large banks, heard about the Bitcoin or its digital ledger. Tim comes from the start-up background - similar to the Bitcoin and blockchain founders and disruptors. Byte Academy is excited to announce that Tim Lee will be doing a blockchain workshop October 16 in addition to other part-time classes.

Why did you decide to enter the Bitcoin market?

Although there are many wallets out there, we've still decided to enter the Bitcoin market because it is still early days. Bitcoin has not yet reach mainstream adoption, so until that happens there are a lot of opportunities for new Bitcoin startups.

About
Emily Hunt

Emily Hunt is a Director at Byte Academy (www.byteacademy.co) which specializes in industry-oriented tech education. It is particularly known for its FinTech coding program, the first of its kind. Other offerings include Python fullstack development, Data Science, Blockchain and Quant - Algos. Emily also serves as a mentor and adviser to NYC-based incubators and startups and likes to organize hackathons around the world in her spare time.

About
Emily Hunt

Emily Hunt is a Director at Byte Academy (www.byteacademy.co) which specializes in industry-oriented tech education. It is particularly known for its FinTech coding program, the first of its kind. Other offerings include Python fullstack development, Data Science, Blockchain and Quant - Algos. Emily also serves as a mentor and adviser to NYC-based incubators and startups and likes to organize hackathons around the world in her spare time.